Little Christmas cheer here: Kohl’s customers sound off online

A review today of the first 50 postings by shoppers on the retailer’s Facebook page found 43 criticizing the retailer for poor holiday season service. A separate “Make Kohl’s Care” page on Facebook has nearly 1,000 postings.

Like many retailers, Kohl’s Corp. has a Facebook page today punctuated with special holiday season offers that conjure up images of pretty gifts in happy homes. “It’s going to be a hot chocolate and warm slippers kind of night,” the retailer says in one display of wool slippers, suggesting shoppers view more images on Instagram, Facebook’s photo-sharing site.

But the comfy slippers display and other Christmas Eve promotions on the retailer’s Facebook page is greatly outnumbered by negative comments posted by shoppers complaining of poor service and orders not likely to arrive by Christmas as Kohl’s had promised. A review of Kohl’s Facebook page today found 43 of the first 50 postings to be critical of the retailer’s ability to fulfill orders. One shopper even complained that Kohl’s should remove its cheerful holiday pitches amid so many customer complaints.

Nearly 1,000 Facebook users were also participating in a separate Facebook page titled “Make Kohl’s Care,” where comments included advice on how to get complaints aired through local news media.

“Kohl’s, I’m breaking up with you,” shopper Lindsey Ethington posted on the retailer’s Facebook page today, adding that Kohl’s had already missed a promised pre-Christmas delivery date and that she did not trust it to accurately fulfill additional orders.

Amid dozens of other similar comments regarding orders not fulfilled and delivered accurately or on time, one shopper posted a complaint that a glitch in the Kohls.com e-commerce site resulted in her receiving eight duplicate orders—for a total of 160 items. “Another rep called me and told me the same thing the first one did,” wrote shopper Rachel Brunson. “There was nothing they could do to stop the 160 items being delivered to my house.” She didn’t describe the items, but said she had already spent a lot of time preparing to return about half of them.

Kohl’s migrated its e-commerce site earlier this year to technology provided by Oracle Corp., but there was no word from the retailer whether it thought the new technology accounted for the difficulties noted by shoppers. Efforts to get a comment from Kohl’s were unsuccessful today; the retailer’s corporate offices were closed and its spokespersons did not reply to e-mail inquiries. A spokesman for Oracle said the company had no comment.